


Baby You And I

by m1010



Category: Dreamcatcher (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Magic, F/F, Fanart, Fluff, Friendship, Nightmares, OT7, Spells & Enchantments, Witches
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-01
Updated: 2019-10-01
Packaged: 2020-11-08 19:37:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,874
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20840912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/m1010/pseuds/m1010
Summary: "They've promised that dreams can come true - but forgot to mention that nightmares are dreams, too." ~ Oscar Wilde~au in which minji learns that her ongoing nightmares have been reality for the person that has haunted her for years





	Baby You And I

**Author's Note:**

> inspired heavily by Dreamcatcher music videos but not entirely dependent nor intended to be canon  
~Enjoy~

  


Minji’s dorm room, needless to say, was a mess. Between all of her classes and extra tutoring sessions she had become preoccupied with, Minji’s room was something of a catastrophe left ignored until she finally,  _ finally, _ mastered the invisibility spell she had been working on and immediately decided to celebrate her victory with a much-needed nap.

At this point, she couldn’t be bothered with following residence hall rules. She whispered an enchantment and with a small wave of her fingers, her clothes went from flying from off the floor, on the bed, and piled against the windowsill, and all into her closet, arranged neatly onto hangers. She was sure her hall counselor would scold her later, but she didn’t care. It took her days to practice for her last exam, and she felt she deserved a break. 

Her mind, though, refused to believe otherwise, as she felt herself spiraling into a dark unknown universe for the first time in ages.

She watched as the girl fell to the ground clutching her stomach and crying in agony. As she laid on the ground, cradling herself in her pain, Minji heard her speak for the first time.

_“Please save me, Minji... please save me, Minji...”_ Her delicate voice repeated the words over and over and Minji was struck with a new sense of terror as everything suddenly felt too real to be just a dream.

She had first gotten the nightmares when she was seventeen. The girl was someone she had never seen in real life, perhaps a figment of her imagination, but deep down Minji knew the girl looked too real to just be a made-up face. The first time she had seen the dreams, the girl was in a forest, surrounded by thick fog and trees so tall the sky couldn’t be seen. She felt the girl’s fear as she ran through the thicket, kicking past every thorn, bush, and vine in the way to get away from the creature chasing the two of them. Minji had long forgotten what the creature looked like, but remembered the deep-seated pain she felt looking at it. All at once she could feel the girl’s pain consuming her mind. 

The dreams had continued for a full year, until one day they disappeared and Minji had assumed they were never coming back. But as she was forced to watch the girl suffer all over again for the first time in years, she knew she had assumed too soon. Every scream sent a tremor into her heart and Minji fell back into that familiar pain of being stuck watching and not being able to save her.

The loud knocking at her door finally pushed Minji out of her restless sleep. She felt like she had just escaped from a horror movie scene and she squeezed her eyes shut to remind herself,  _ it wasn’t real _ .

“ _ Minji! _ ” The voice from outside her room broke her out of the dream and her restless sleep.

“Coming,” she groaned. She rubbed circles on her forehead with her hands and stretched out her legs before rolling out of her bed and opening the door. 

“Holy shit you look like you died.” Bora’s eyes were open wide in surprise as she looked her best friend up and down, taking in Minji’s disheveled appearance.

Minji pulled her into a hug.

“I missed you, Bora” she mumbled into her shoulder and dug her head into her neck. Bora was significantly shorter than her, so it made for an uncomfortable position for both of them, but Bora was touched nonetheless.

As Minji let her best friend go, she noticed Yoobin standing awkwardly behind Bora, probably following her girlfriend around out of boredom.

“Did something happen?” Yoobin asked, as Minji greeted her with a hug as well, a little less touchy but still well-meaning in its affection.

“It’s just,” Minji trailed off and sighed. “I woke up from a nap and I saw something - well, someone - in my dream.”

“It’s not the girl again, is it?” Bora asked.

“The girl?” Yoobin gave the two a blank look,furrowing her eyebrows in confusion.

“Come inside, I’ll tell you about her.” Minji motioned for the two to come into her room. 

As soon as the door shut behind Yoobin, Minji jumped up on her bed. Yoobin gave her a curious glance, probably realizing Minji had used magic to clean up, but Minji paid no heed. She took her time recounting her memories of seeing the girl, Bora nodding her head listening while Yoobin seemed to be lost in thought.

“I never mentioned them since they stopped happening a while back, way before you and Bora met. I don’t know why they came back, though.”

“You said you first saw these dreams seven years ago?”

“Yoobin, you look like you’re thinking too hard. Aren’t they just dreams?” Bora questioned.

“I considered the idea that they weren’t dreams before,” Minji interjected. “But today she said my name.” 

This caught the others’ attention. “And I know dreams come from your subconscious but I’ve always doubted imagining up a whole person from the beginning. And now adding in a voice? It just feels like a real person was saying it to me.”

“Do you think there’s a chance you might know her?” Yoobin asked. Minji had a gut feeling Yoobin knew something but she chose not to bring it up.

“From where? A cartoon or something?”

“No, like in real life.”

“I don’t think I remember seeing someone like her.”

“I don’t know.” Yoobin’s expression was unreadable, more so than usual. “ It’s just that the stuff you’re telling me sounds a bit familiar, maybe like something I heard before. But maybe we should look into it more? It’s not a very  _ normal _ thing to be dreaming of someone you’ve never seen.”

~

Tonight she found herself in a gray pantsuit, hair done up in a way that felt too formal for her personal taste. Her head darted back and forth, taking in her surroundings. The walls around her were lined with mirrors and photos of different people, all framed intricately. The lights above her flickered on and off and she could hear the sound of wind howling behind her Her dazed confusion was interrupted by a scream down the hallway, a scream that she recognized from countless nightmares. It was the girl. 

She found herself darting down the hallway. By now, the lights above her had completely stopped working, and the only light coming in was from the moon outside the windows. The hallways of the vintage mansion twisted and turned like that in a maze, but Minji could only concentrate on finding her, letting her two feet guide her in whatever direction she hoped would bring her closer to the girl. She felt the hairs raised on the back of her neck and looked beside her at a mirror to find herself almost within the grasp of a shadowy figure. 

Whatever the figure was, it probably did something to the girl too, and Minji did not want to be subjected to the same fate. 

She pushed herself to run faster, almost tripping on her own feet before she stumbled into a room in what looked to be a kind of attic, set up with a full photography studio. She took a moment to catch her breath and looked behind her, relieved to find the shadow was nowhere around. She took another step forward and her foot landed in a thick mass of cobwebs. She cringed, attempting to shake the spider silks off of her foot. And then she saw her.

The girl was lying on the floor unconscious. Minji could only stare as a spider crawled across her face and over her head. It felt like only a moment passed before another five or so spiders rushed towards the girl’s body. Minji sprung into action, stepping on the spiders and crushing them under her shoe before running up to the girl and cradling her head in her arms, feeling for a pulse.

She still had a pulse at least.

Minji rocked back and forth with the girl’s head rested on her lap, praying that she would wake up. It was no use.

~

Minji practically knocked the door down when she barged into Bora and Yoobin’s room at three in the morning. The two of them were snuggled together on the same cramped twin bed. Yoobin was reading a book while Bora was asleep, her head laying across Yoobin’s chest. Yoobin looked up sharply from her book.

“Wha-”

“Spiders,” Minji breathed, and when Yoobin narrowed her eyes, Minji took a deep breath. “She was surrounded by spiders in the dream I was having. You asked something about spiders the other day right?”

Yoobin’s eyes widened as she pushed Bora off of her body. Bora grumbled, complaining about how suddenly Yoobin woke her up, but Yoobin cut her off.

“If it’s what I think it is, then holy  _ fuck _ .”

“Just because we’re friends doesn’t mean you can barge in like this,” Bora said while yawning, rubbing the back of her neck before pouting at Minji. 

“Your fault for keeping the door unlocked,” Minji shrugged.

The three of them, still clad in pajamas, ran outside and held hands. Bora sleepily recited a short spell as a sparkle of dust surrounded them, transporting the three of them into the library. Yoobin pulled them into a hidden corner of the library and pulled out an old leather-bound book coated in dust. She laid her right hand on the book before reciting a small spell. The book opened up on its own and scrolled to a page somewhere in the middle. Yoobin picked up the book and held it open on her left arm, reading silently.

“This fits the bill exactly,” Yoobin commented a moment later as she paced back and forth. “The curse of the spider.”

“I thought that was just a fictional thing though,” Bora questioned.

“That’s what I thought too, a while ago. I learned about it after my step-sister-”

“Your sister? Is that why you recognized it when I told you about my dreams?”

Yoobin nodded. “Gahyeon fell under the curse too. But there was this other girl, our neighbor Handong. She started seeing Gahyeon in her dreams and we found out because she offhandedly mentioned a girl in her dreams looking like my mom. We forgot about Gahyeonie being in our lives too, which is really messed up but it’s part of the curse I guess?” Yoobin sighed. “Then one day she kind of popped up again and it was like she was never gone. I only know all of this cause Gahyeon still gets nightmares about being in there.”

“So this could be someone I know and care about stuck in my head?”

“That’s just really cruel,” Bora remarked. “They put someone who’s obviously important to you in your head and have her tortured and torture you at the same time.”

“I can try to reach out to Handong and see if she could help. But maybe you should try talking to the girl? See what else you can find out?”

“I’d need a way to be able to stay conscious in my dreams for that to happen.”

“Let’s see what we can do.”

~

Minji spent the rest of the week practicing how to be more aware in her dreams. She was buried in textbooks and worn out from all the spells she had her friends cast on her as she slept, and each experiment left her more restless and anxious.

She scoured through books late at night on her own after Bora and Yoobin had retired for the night, flipping for some spell that could let her talk to what she once thought was a figment of her imagination. She yawned, flipping through countless yellowed pages as the words inscribed on them slowly turned to mush in her brain. She was about to slam the book shut and retire for the night when a single line caught her eye.

_ “Animo translago,” _ she read slowly. “The handing over of the mind. Huh.”

She dug into her school bag, finding her notes from her Spellmanship class and flipping through. At last she found it.

“If I altered this spell to make myself the giver and receiver of the spell I could go into my own mind,” she concluded, jotting down a couple of notes onto a notepad. “And then combining this with a sleep spell I think this could make me fully conscious in the dream.”

She made the arrangements for the spell she was about to test on herself. At this point, she was too tired to care about any possible adverse effects - she probably would sleep through them anyway with how tired she already was. She cleared her bedroom floor and sprinkled several powders around her bed until the floor around her bed looked to be covered in pink and blue dust. She carefully tiptoed over the powders and laid on her bed, repeating her newly created enchantment in light whispers until she felt her eyes grow heavier as she was pulled into sleep.

Minji found herself waking up in a city. She looked down at her hands, unsure if this was all real or not.

“It worked,” she muttered, and turned around to find the girl standing on a rooftop facing the moon.

“Hey!” she shouted, but the girl didn’t respond. Minji found an entrance to the building and made her way up the stairs and to the rooftop to join the girl.

“I wasn’t sure if you couldn’t hear me so I came up here to check.”

The girl turned to Minji with hollowed out eyes as a beast emerged from behind her.

“This is only a dream,” Minji reminded herself, and recited a spell to make the beast disappear. Her magic worked a bit slower in the dream but it worked well enough. The girl’s eyes returned to normal as she collapsed on the ground.

“I never knew I could do that,” she thought, as she crouched next to the girl and recited a short spell to give her her energy back. The girl managed to pull herself up, her silver bangs a mess across her forehead as she made direct eye contact with Minji for the first time in years. Her face broke out into a relieved grin.

“Minji, it’s you!” The girl reached out to give Minji a hug but the young witch backed away.

“I’m really sorry. I know you see me as someone who’s here to save you but I don’t know who you are. I might have known at some point but I don’t know now.”

The girl hesitated for a moment. “It must’ve been the curse.”

“The spider curse?”

The silver-haired girl nodded, a look of fright in her eyes. “It’s not actually a spider. It was some old woman. I really thought she was a sweet person but then I don’t know, she pushed me to the ground and turned into a spider and then I ended up here.”

“Why do I keep seeing you?”

“Because I love you.”

Minji was taken aback by the girl’s words. 

“Who are you? What did this spirit take away from me?”

~

Minji woke up to the feeling of warm sunlight peeking out of the curtains and landing across her face.

_ Yoohyeon. _

Her name was pretty, almost as pretty as her.

As she pulled herself out of bed and her feet landed on powder, the realization dawned on her that she had actually managed to do it.

For the second time that month, she barged into Yoobin and Bora’s room, only to be met with unfamiliar faces beside Bora.

“W-who are you?” Minji stuttered.

“Oh um, hi. I’m uh-”

“That’s Gahyeon, my step-sister. And Handong is her girlfriend,” a voice came out of the closet. Minji opened the closet door to find Yoobin arranging a new set of clothes in a drawer. 

“Her girlfriend?”

“Yeah, remember I told you about Handong saving Gahyeon from the curse?”

Minji nodded. “Why does it look like they’re moving in?”

“Because they are, temporarily,” Bora replied.

Handong added on. “If this really is the curse of the spider then you’re gonna need all the help you can get. This is some serious stuff.”

“And we definitely don’t want her to be there too much longer,” Gahyeon shuddered. “That place is awful.”

“So what’s with you barging in here again?” Yoobin asked, diverting the attention back to Minji.

“Well, um, I was messing around with a few spells last night and I managed to have a lucid dream. I talked to Yoohyeon.”

“Who?” Bora asked.

“She’s the girl. Apparently both of us were really close with her. And well…” Minji trailed off.

“Well what?”

“She was my girlfriend from seven years ago.”

Bora laughed. “Aw, looks like Minji isn’t so forever alone after all.”

“Shut up, you brat,” Minji sputtered out. “Anyway, she told me about some evil spirit who turned into a spider.”

“That sounds familiar,” Gahyeon commented. “I remember the day it happened to me. I was in the bathroom at school and there was some strange person who came out of one of the stalls. I asked her how she managed to get in since she wasn’t a teacher or anything and she said she came through the walls?”

“Through the walls?” Minji questioned.

“Yeah,” she nodded. “I was surprised too. And then she just turned into a spider and next thing I knew I wasn’t at school anymore.”

“So at least we know for a fact that we’re definitely dealing with the curse of the spider.” Yoobin turned away from the closet and towards Minji. “Did she tell you how to get her out?” 

Minji hesitated. “Um, no, but she did tell me about this one time when I called her a puppy and she followed me around the whole day and snuggled with me and it was really cute.”

“My god, Minji,” Bora sighed. 

“Okay, sorry!” She threw her hands up in the air. “I’ll try to be less distracted.”

“Putting all of that aside,” Handong interrupted, “if it’s fine with you, could I bring in this other friend of mine? She mentioned dealing with stuff like this a bunch of times and helped me with getting Gahyeon out.”

“Anything to get Yoohyeon out.”

“You said it yourself, Dongie,” Yoobin jumped in. “We need all the help we can get.”

~

As soon as Siyeon walked into the room, Minji sensed the aura of confidence surrounding the young woman. She greeted Handong and Gahyeon with a hug before turning to Minji, Bora, and Yoobin. 

“So you need to get a friend out of the nightmare realm?”

“The what?” Minji furrowed her eyebrows.

“The nightmare realm,” Gahyeon answered. “It’s the technical name for the place the curse traps you in.”

“The curse transfers your entire existence into the realm so no trace of you is left in the real world,” Siyeon added on, studying Minji’s room, littered with spellbooks, notes, and leftover powders.

“I’m sorry about the mess,” Minji said quickly. “I’ve been spending a lot of time with Yoohyeon in the nightmare realm. It doesn’t look too different from real life over there.”

“It’s not about the appearance,” Siyeon said. “The key difference between the real world and the nightmare realm is that spirits exist in our world but draw power from the people they trap in the realm. They have ultimate power in the realm. So if we want to get Yoohyeon out, we need to find the spirit that cursed her and trap it in the nightmare realm.”

“It’s a very small window of opportunity so it’s gonna take a lot of collaborative effort from all of us,” Handong commented. “Last time it was just me and Siyeon trying to get Gahyeon out and we almost didn’t make it.”

“What do you mean by almost didn’t make it?” Yoobin asked, struck by the realization that the task at hand would be dangerous for all of them.

“There’s no point for spirits to kill anyone; they trap all of their victims in the nightmare realm to drain energy from them,” answered Handong. “And I’m sure you’ve realized by now the dreams happen for people with a significant attachment to the person who has been trapped.”

Siyeon picked up, “They are the only person who can go into and out of the realm at will, so if any spirit catches wind of their movements and manages to close off the realm -”

“- both of them stay stuck in the nightmare realm forever,” Gahyeon finished, eyes cast downwards at the floor. 

All six were silent for a moment in contemplation, the understanding sinking in that by choosing to save Yoohyeon, someone who none of them had any recollection of whatsoever, they were putting their own lives at stake.

“I know I don’t know her right now,” Bora finally interjected, “but I did once and if Minji’s the one seeing dreams of her then clearly she’s worth the fight.”

Minji took Bora’s small hands into hers and gave them a small squeeze. “Thanks for always standing by me.”

“We’re all with you, Minji,” Yoobin smiled, placing a hand on her shoulder. “Even if we never knew her. She matters to you and to Bora and we’re here with both of you to the end.”

Siyeon nodded. “In that case, let’s cover ground rules. One is that nothing of our operation gets out of this room or to anyone outside of the six of us. Even Yoohyeon can’t even be filled on specific details from things we do here - the spirit could be listening.” 

Minji shuddered as Siyeon continued. “Two, we all need to communicate. This is a dangerous thing we’re doing and I want to know we’re all putting in our best efforts and charging in despite our fears.”

The others silently nodded.

“In that case, I’m gonna start working on tracking the spirit down. It would be great if the rest of you can help.”

~

The next couple of weeks were spent with Minji and Siyeon casting multiple spells and tracking down nearly every spirit on the continent. Gahyeon and Handong gave them useful intel, allowing the group to narrow down the number of spirits on their list of suspects. Bora and Yoobin, in the meantime, spent hours in spell practice rooms mastering defense against spirits. Still, Minji felt like the group wasn’t getting any closer to their end goal.

“I came across this room once,” Yoohyeon brought up once while laying on the grass with the other girl’s hand in hers. “It was filled with a bunch of magical things that definitely wouldn’t work in the nightmare realm but might work if you managed to bring them to your world.”

“What kinds of things?”

“A bunch of photos of random people. Little hourglasses. And there was a book there.”

Minji’s eyes widened at this. She sat up quickly, and Yoohyeon, in response, jumped up as well.

“Handong mentioned a book when she was talking about getting Gahyeon out. She said something about a really complicated bunch of enchantments on the book that only lets you use the book once.”

“What if it’s not the same book?”

“We have to try. We’re gonna get you out, Yoohyeon.”

“There’s another thing.” Yoohyeon hesitated, a look of worry briefly crossing her face. “The room - the one the book was in. I remember there was this ring with a giant gemstone on it and when I touched it I fell unconscious.”

“Did you feel anything strange?”

“I don’t know, it kind of felt like I was being suffocated by cobwebs and then I passed out.”

“Holy shit, Yoo, you’re amazing.”

The silver haired girl tilted her head in confusion, and the motion reminded Minji of a puppy.

“You’re cute,” she said, poking Yoohyeon’s nose, eliciting a giggle from both of them as Yoohyeon cradled herself into Minji’s lap.

~

“Found it!” Siyeon jumped up from her chair and announced. Minji and Gahyeon looked up at her from the floor where they were surrounded by endless books.

“You found the spirit?”

“I figured out which one it is. That thing with the ring Yoohyeon told you about was super helpful.” Siyeon grinned. “These spirits, their power is mainly held within a particular item that they hold with them but there is always a duplicate in the nightmare realm. I narrowed it down to this one spirit. A lot of people who’ve seen her say she wears a whole bunch of rings - I think her entire reputation is based just off of that alone. As far as we know though, it’s the emerald ring on her right middle finger that holds most of her power. That’s the one you said Yoohyeon saw in the realm, right?”

Minji nodded.

“In that case, I think we got our spirit. If the two of you could get yourselves over here and help me with some extra spell casting we can get a proper location on this fucker.”

Gahyeon and Minji leaped over to where Siyeon was in the room. They held hands and recited several enchantments until a small window opened up in the space between them.

“I know that place,” Siyeon said. “It’s an abandoned hotel in a clearing in the middle of the woods. Used to be super operational but I think some kind of fire happened there a while back. That place attracts a lot of spirits.”

“So we did it then?” Minji asked, awestruck. “We found the spirit?”

Siyeon and Gahyeon nodded in excitement, finally feeling like something had been accomplished.

“We need to tell the others.”

Siyeon ran out of the room. Minji went to follow her, but Gahyeon grabbed her by her wrist.

“Hey, can I talk to you about something?”

Gahyeon motioned for the two of them to sit on Minji’s bed. She took Minji’s hands into her own and sighed. 

“This whole thing got me thinking about that time I spent in the realm myself. I’ve been getting flashbacks of my time there again.”

“Oh, Gahyeonie,” Minji’s eyes went glossy.

“No, don’t feel bad. I mean it was horrible. Those memories make me who I am now. I’m nowhere near as bubbly or as innocent as I was before that spirit trapped me. I just pulled you aside because I wanted you to know that once we get Yoohyeon out, she won’t be the same person she was before she went in.”

“That’s not going to change how much she matters to me though.”

“Of course not. It shouldn’t. I just wanted you to know that things will be okay. I mean Dongie and Siyeonie managed to get me out and it was just the two of them. You have five people with you. We’re here with you through all of this. I just want you to know there’s hope.”

“Thank you Gahyeonie. I really hope this all works out.”

~

A few hours later and the six of them were gathered in an empty lounge space they found in Minji’s residence hall. 

“If you can find the book then we’re all set,” Handong noted, an anxious smile on her face at the events of tonight.

“Just to make sure we can all keep track of each other, I’m putting on an enchantment on all of us to connect our minds together so that we can stay updated telepathically.”

Siyeon flicked her fingers in the air and all six of them felt a burst of magic within them.

_ Can you hear me? _

The other five nodded their heads at Siyeon and she gave them a contented smile.

“Now that that’s out of the way, we know what we’re doing, right?” Siyeon asked.

“Just let us know if you need any backup. An evil spirit is hard to take on,” Handong said.

Bora scoffed. “Don’t worry, me and Siyeon got this. You, Gahyeon, and Yoobin better focus on all of that spell casting.”

“I think,” Siyeon cut in, “that Minji has the hardest job here.” 

Handong nodded. “I’m honestly not as worried about Siyeon and Bora as much as I am about Minji.” She turned to Minji. “The one thing about this mind link is that it’ll weaken your ability to be fully aware in your dream. Once you go in you probably only have a few minutes to get the book to Yoobin and Handong and get Yoohyeon out of there. If you stay too long you could end up getting trapped in there with her and that would really suck for all of us, so try not to fuck this up.”

“I’ll try my best.”

~

“Now, before you dive in,” Handong reminded, “what was the spell I taught you?”

“It was, um, ‘nobis liberate’.”

Handong nodded. “So as soon as you get us the book, you get to Yoohyeon and create a circle of stone, and when Yoobin’s done with the recitations from the book I’ll let you know and you start chanting that until you’re out.”

“It doesn’t sound too hard.”

“I want you to have that ingrained in your head though. The nightmare realm is a weird place and I’m really sorry that it has to be you going in there.”

“I wouldn’t want you to have to deal with that a second time.”

“I wouldn’t want her to deal with that a second time either,” Gahyeon cut in.

“Not to rush you or anything,” Yoobin interrupted, “but Bora is risking herself out there trying to contain an evil spirit and I want her away from it as soon as possible so can we get started?”

It was almost routine at this point, Minji obtaining a vial full of powder from under her bed, sprinkling it around the place and casting spell after spell on herself until she found herself in the nightmare realm.

“ _ Hello? _ ” she tested out.

_ You’re in? _ a voice said in her head.

_ Yep, running in to find the book now. _

Minji recognized the rooftop she was on - it was from the day she learned about her and Yoohyeon. Yoohyeon hadn’t pinpointed the exact place she had seen the book but Minji remembered Yoohyeon’s description of the place. She used her magic to see a 3D map in front of her, laid out in a satellite point of view so Minji could find the house Yoohyeon had mentioned. It felt as though her power was being drained from her, but she managed to hold out long enough to find the house. Once she found it, she managed to open a portal to the small village house at the edge of the city. There, she tried summoning the book to herself but she heard crackling from her fingers as she attempted to cast the spell.

_ It’s already starting, Minji. Hurry up. _

_ This fast? _

Minji sighed as she kicked down the door. She ran through the house until she found the room Yoohyeon described. It was a little creepy-looking, with worn-down flowery wallpaper and dim lamps providing the only light in the room. She turned the room upside down, even dropping and breaking a few hourglasses, until she finally found a giant brown book in leather binding.

_ I think I got it. How do I get it to you? _

She heard a gust of wind from behind her.

_ We just opened a portal from the nightmare realm into ours. Just pass the book through. _

Minji would’ve found the sight of Yoobin’s hand appearing out of a mirror almost comical were it not for the urgency she was feeling at that moment. She quickly placed the book into Yoobin’s grasp.

_ Got it! Now run, you only have a few minutes to find Yoohyeon _ .

Minji’s head was already feeling heavier once she left the cottage, and she couldn’t tell if she was falling back into an unconscious state or if it was the mantra in her head: save Yoohyeon, save Yoohyeon,  _ save Yoohyeon _ . 

_ I think the spirit just cast a spell but I don’t know what it did _ .

Minji ignored Bora’s complaint in her head as she used the last bit of her magic to transport back to where she started, the dust circling her very faint as her ability to use her magic crackled away. She closed her eyes hoping the spell would work.

When she opened her eyes she stood in awe of the full moon for a moment before realizing she had no way of reaching Yoohyeon - that is, until a spider crawled over her foot.

Minji followed the small spider down a dimly-lit corridor until she found cobwebs, slowly growing thicker and thicker and leading her into a barren moonlit field. Despite losing track of the spider, she ran until her feet could no longer carry her, and she collapsed. She looked up to find a massive stone structure up ahead and Yoohyeon standing in front of it.

“Yoohyeon!” Minji called out, and forced herself to continue to her. But as Minji came closer it became apparent to her why Yoohyeon hadn’t responded back.

Once again, Yoohyeon had hollow eyes, looking at Minji as though she was piercing her soul. There was no hint of any beast but Minji could sense the sinister presence of a darker being residing within Yoohyeon’s soul. She tried to conjure a spell, the same one that had brought Yoohyeon back last time, but to no avail - she was losing herself to the nightmare realm as well. 

_ Yoohyeon’s been possessed. I don’t know what to do. _

_ You’ve got to figure it out. Yoobin’s almost done with the spell. You’ve got maybe two minutes, tops. _

“Yoohyeon, please wake up!” Minji grabbed the girl’s hands in her own and tried to shake her out of her possessed state. 

“Please, Yoohyeon,” Minji begged, nearly on the verge of tears. “I might not remember who you once were to me but I know you’re so important to me now and I need you. I want to save you.”

Minji had no idea what she was doing, but rather let instinct take over, pressing her lips to Yoohyeon’s in a soft kiss until  _ finally _ , she felt the other girl reciprocate. She pulled back slowly and was met with brown eyes looking back at her lovingly. Her mind flooded with moments, memories of their time together from  _ before. _

“I remember,” Minji whispered to Yoohyeon. “I remember everything.”

_ Yoobin’s almost done. You’d better be ready soon. _

“Oh shit,” Minji exclaimed. “I want to hold your hand longer but right now we need to set everything up so we can go back.”

The two of them quickly arranged the circle, their makeshift portal back to the real world. The world felt as though it were moving in slow motion as soon as Handong gave Minji her signal, Minji facing Yoohyeon and holding her hand as she recited the enchantment. A swirl of gray dust circled around them and Minji kept chanting until the dust had them entirely encircled and they disappeared from the nightmare realm and into the arms of friends, all surrounding them celebrating their success. 

They were finally free. 

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this for my fanfic class hehe. follow me on my[ au twitter](https://twitter.com/tanniebumAUs/status/1133612881189249024) account or my main [ twitter](https://twitter.com/tanniebum), bonus points if yall are somniarmy  
love yall byeeee
> 
> (also, im totally being graded on this piece so if my professor or my classmates see this, hello)


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